Purion & Teas

There was a surprise sip of a lovely aged pu'er from Yun Chun Tea Factory in Jinggu Dai and Yi Autonomous County of the Pu'er Prefecture in Yunnan Province. (景谷傣族彝族自治县云春茶厂) It was a very welcome change from all the oolongs we've been drinking. In fact, I wasn't expecting to have anything but oolongs the whole trip. Heh.

We were sitting in the lovely shop of Lin's Ceramics Studio (陶作坊), and were so curious about their purion line. It's a special blend of minerals (quartz and mica) and clay to produce a granular activated carbon structure to somehow filter and produce a sweeter, clearer brew of aged pu'ers and dark oolongs. From my understanding of this, the combination of materials creates mesopores and macropores that absorb tannins. There you go. Astringency levels dramatically lower, sweetness ensues.

We checked out purion with dark oolongs, and their house pu'er, and compared it to their other ceramic wares. Well, it isn't a teahouse. It sells teawares, but by way of courtesy, many shops will offer a cup of tea to the serious customer, and we probably plonked ourselves there for hours. The usual ceramic cup gave pu'er its familiar characteristics and told me the general quality of the tea. Decent. This purion material somehow filters out the earthy notes from the pu'er and sweetens it, making it hard to tell its '韻', or perhaps what we could define a tea's 'essence'.

As it is with all teas, ultimately, it boils down to whether you like it. Tea, is arbitrary, to a large extent. The more I learn about tea, the more I'm not willing to discuss it openly unless it's about basics, or engage in a specific debate about a species or something. There're just too many purists and fanatics out there. Maybe I'm one of them, but I'm not going to shove my opinion down anyone's throat or be disparaging about another's personal choices. I'm not turning into a tea farmer or opening a cafe, or intending to run a tea import/export trade. At the end of the day, it's all about me- MY PREFERENCES, MY MONEY, MY OPINION, MY TASTEBUDS, MY HEALTH. (Like how I dislike Louboutins and Repettos because they friggin hurt my feet.) Moderation, remember? I need to drink water daily. Tea isn't needed. I rather turn to the websites, and talk about it on the blog, or at the most, speak to a very select group of tea-loving friends about it.

Sorry, that's just me being pissed off with people who keep trying to define what's good and what's crap, by their books. If I'm asking for an opinion, sure, by all means, give it to me. But if I'm not, don't be presumptuous. One man's meat, is another's poison. Back to this pu'er. So, a sweeter pu'er in a purion cup- I don't mind it. It makes me happier to drink the pu'er. It sorta changes the essence of the tea, softening the harsh properties. Most interesting.